Land of Earth and Sky: Landscape Painting of Western Canada

Patricia Vervoort is an assistant professor of art history at Lakehead
University.

The aim of Ronald Rees here is to explore the relationship between people and the prairies by a thematic approach, landscape painting. Rees’s introduction stresses the emphasis is on culture, not art. But Rees, a geography professor at the University of Saskatchewan, makes an important contribution to the study of landscape art. The text, with 25 black-and-white illustrations, is followed by 77 colour reproductions. Arranged chronologically, both text and pictures reveal the changing attitudes of governments, visitors, and artists toward the prairie landscape.

Divided into two parts, “Art Before the Settlement” and “The Art of the Settlement,” the book presents an overview of prairie art. Beginning with the first topographers (the old favourites Paul Kane and Frederick Verner) and the first two artists to accept the prairie as a new subject (Augustus Kenderline and C.W. Jefferys), Rees demonstrates the slowly developing acceptance of a new land. A genuine regional art finally developed in the works by L.L. FitzGerald, Illingworth Kerr, and Robert Hurley. Among the latest works included are several 1983 paintings by Allen Sapp.

One shortcoming is the lack of footnotes. Quotations are heavily used in the text and contribute to the sense of changing moods and attitudes. Taken from diaries, letters, and other works, this first-hand material can be located only by searching Rees’s bibliography. A list of illustrations and an index aid in using this volume.